Barbie: The Rise and Fall of America’s It Girl
My childhood revolved around Barbie-themed parties, owning a collection of dress-up dolls, and hosting movie marathons with my friends. I remember we each had our favorite flick, with mine being Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses. Over the years, I grew out of dolls, though I never doubted that her popularity would continue to grow with each generation. As such, I was shocked to find out that this was far from the truth. In 2012, sales plummeted dramatically. In 2014, Lego dethroned Mattel as the largest toy company in the world, and Hasbro’s Elsa replaced Barbie as the most popular doll of the year.
This piqued my interest and I had two key questions: a) Why did the brand fail? and b) How did they manage to revive?
Since her introduction in 1959, she has always been criticized for being too tall, too skinny, too blond, and too out-of-touch with the Millennial consumer. The definition of beauty had broadened to include all shapes and sizes, and girls wanted to play with a doll that looked like them. Barbie simply… didn’t.
Project Dawn
The Mattel team began brainstorming ways to redefine the brand under the secret title “Project Dawn”. They continued to post on Facebook and Twitter but focused on Instagram and Youtube, where Barbie began posting vlogs, #AskBarbie segments, and music videos.
They also hosted a series of social media campaigns to better connect with their audience. In 2016, Barbie was reintroduced with three new body types: Petite, tall and curvy. Later, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Mattel launched the “Barbie Celebrates Role Models” campaign by introducing 17 s-heroes to showcase the accomplishments of extraordinary women.
The ultimate goal was to emphasize Barbie’s relevance and relatability to today’s consumer — and that they did. A social media frenzy ensued as fans gushed over the brand’s new look.
Gone was the doll that represented the simplicity of childhood. Today, Barbie is ethnically-diverse and socially-progressive. She’s a latte-loving, environmentally-friendly, puppy-yoga fanatic who has avocado toast for breakfast and never leaves the house without the latest styles — just like the rest of us! Or is she?
As applaudable as her online persona has become, it begs the question: Is Barbie too relatable? By jumping on every cultural fad, is she understandable… or just satirical?
Unfortunately, many agree on the latter. With the rise of social media, parody Barbie accounts have emerged to ridicule the ostensible perfection of her brand. Most notably, @socalitybarbie and @trophywifebarbie, with 810K and 459K followers respectively, post comically-realistic depictions of the everyday life of a woman. Interestingly, despite Barbie’s high follower count on Instagram, she has a remarkably low engagement rate of 1.75% and only amasses an average of 37.2K likes per photo. In comparison, parody accounts are reaching over 100K. What does this mean for the future of the brand?
In closing, Barbie will always be a household name to children around the world. No matter the telecommunication channel, her message hasn’t changed in 57 years: We, girls, can do anything. As such, I hope that in the generations of Barbie dolls to come, her message will continue to empower girls to believe in themselves and in a future that they can only dream of.
